Chapter 26 Falling for her

"Princess, are you alright?" Mizpah asked Angela when she did not talk to him.

Angela was not ready to divulge that she had another voice in her head that was telling her that she had a wolf. Things kept getting weirder every moment, she felt like there was no easy moment from the time she set foot on Grundolf.

The only positive thing that happened was her mother, who was now missing and in danger of being recalled using dark magic and dying or being in a coma for the rest of her life. She also had feelings for a man that was way beyond her league, who called her princess in the most tantalizing voice she had ever heard. There was a challenge coming up in a few days, she was expected to be dueling with the emperor to fight for the throne of Grundolf, because she had apparently challenged him to it. Now a voice had just appeared from nowhere telling her that it was her wolf, if this was not crazy she did not know what was.

"Khisa, my wolf?" she asked out aloud forgetting Greta was in the room with her.

"Sorry child, what did you say?" Greta asked her thinking Angela was talking to her.

"Uuuum sorry, I wasn't talking to you," she replied nervous that she would not know what to say to Greta if she prodded her further.

"Do not tell her about me just yet, it would not be safe for you if people knew of me," Khisa told Angela.

"Why, I trust Greta,"

"Not yet Kharisi, it's not yet time to reveal myself to the outside world but to you only. You will need my guidance, my strength, and my experience in the upcoming challenge with the Emperor."

"How do I have a wolf yet am human?"

"You sure act dumb for a person with such a huge destiny resting on her shoulders. I was at the same time as you were but before I could fully manifest in you, mother suppressed my growth to protect you from the danger you were in. I had to be concealed and cloaked, my essence is very powerful, and if I were to release it at once, it would intimidate every wolf in all the seven realms. They would be aware of my awakening and would be pulled towards you because of who you are to them. Other supernatural creatures would also be aware of my existence and because of the power we possess; many would want to harvest it for themselves using dark magic. It is important that I stay cloaked, even my scent will be cloaked to everyone including our mate, he will not be able to recognize us but we will recognize him."

"Wait wait, hold up ... our mate? We have one?" Angela asked.

"Hahahaha... yes our destined mate,” Khisa laughed.

"Why does everyone call me Kharisi yet I am Angela?"

"Mother named you Kharisi when you were born, I was named Khisa, but your name changed to Angela when you were taken to the human realm where the great witch Carita Bennett took you."

"Why was I taken to the human realm?" she asked curious for the first time to know why she was different from the people she saw at Grundolf.

"Mother will be the best person to tell you the whole story behind your cloaking and being shifted to the human realm."

Greta was looking at Angela, if she did not know any better she would have thought that she was mind linking with her wolf but since she had none, she wondered what was happening to the girl. Her eyes had turned white, a symptom of a person talking to their wolf and she was still as a statue. She stood from where she sat and went to Angela and touched her shoulders.

"Ohh oh, Greta is here," Khisa said to Angela and retreated.

Angela's eyes returned to normal but Greta was concerned, she thought that maybe something to do with magic was happening to her, but when Angela turned her mismatched eyes towards Greta, they were perfectly normal.

"Child are you okay?"

"Yes, am fine"

"But you did not look fine a moment ago, your eyes looked …… they did not look normal," she said trying to find a suitable word for how her eyes looked like.

"Huh? What do you mean I'm not fine?" she said feigning innocence.

Greta touched her forehead to check her temperature, touched her chest and her cheeks but she seemed to be just fine.

"I could have sworn you were about to have a seizure or something, you did not look okay to me," she said her worry for Angela's well-being evident on her face.

"You worry too much Greta, I was meditating. These past few days have been stressful for me and I am worried for my mother, "she lied effortlessly.

"If you say so but if you feel sick or have any pain in your body, do not hesitate to let me know."

"Yes worry Molly, you would be the first to know if anything was wrong, ." she said and kissed her cheek.

"I am serious, do not hesitate to call me, even when am not nearby you can always ask Natalia to find me. Go to sleep, tomorrow is a big day that has a lot of things that need to be done," she told Angela who was already getting into bed. Greta tucked her in, straightened her rumpled bedspread, and dimmed the table lamp.

"Sleep well Kharisi," Greta whispered and left.

"I'll never get used to being a Kharisi," she said to no one in particular.

Mizpah heard her and grunted, "You better get used to it”

"I was not talking to you"

"Still, you better get used to being a Kharisi because that is who you are. You no longer need to hide behind Angela, it is a beautiful name, but you can only live up to your full potential the minute you embrace who you really are, "Khisa reappeared.

"Is that who I think it is?" Mizpah asked excited to hear the voice speaking to Angela.

"How are you able to hear her?" Angela asked Mizpah.

"She is part of you; I've known her in all the lifetimes you have lived."

"Hey big guy, I missed you too," Khisa excitedly spoke to Mizpah.

"Mouthy as usual," Mizpah said feigning disinterest even though he was pleased to have Khisa back.

"Hey, out of my head you two," Angela reprimanded Khisa and Mizpah. Both beasts laughed but retreated to give her space to get used to having another being inside of her. She lay on her bed thinking of something Khisa had mentioned and every time she closed her eyes, she would see Zander's face.

"Hey Khisa, do you know who our mate is?" Angela asked. She waited for Khisa to reply but it was all quiet, her wolf had left as suddenly as she had appeared. Zander's face tormented her, his thoughts invaded her mind and completely engulfed her, every thought she thought, and Zander was at the very center of it. She wondered how one person could completely dominate her waking moments and torment her dreams.

She forced him out of her thoughts; she wondered why her mother and grandma Alice had to hide her from her own grandfather. Did he not love her, why was he so hard on Celestine concerning her birth? She remembered her mother talking about her father; she thought it would have been great if she had met him. Would he have loved her?

She tried to imagine how it would feel having a father but could not; she grew up without a male figure. It had always been her and her grandmother Alice, who apparently was also a Grundolfian and a witch. She tried to remember their life together and any indication that could have shown that she was more to her than met the eye but she could not recall any moment. Alice lived a life of squalor just like any poor human being.

Try as she might, she tried of thinking of Casper the emperor as her grandfather, but she could not connect with that fact. He seemed like any other stranger and he actually irAliceted her.

She remembered the first time he had seen her, the smirk he wore on his face and the triumph that was evident, not all those signs pointed to a person who was happy to see his granddaughter after seventeen years. It felt like someone who had finally found his lost trophy that someone took from him, Casper's reaction when he found her made Angela feel insignificant.

On the other side of the palace, Zander was pacing back and forth, how could he have been so careless? He had been about to kiss Angela when Greta interrupted them, he would be forever grateful to her. He shuddered to think of what would have happened had Greta not come when she did.

"We could claim her and make her ours," Zane his wolf did not make matters any better.

"She is not ours to claim, why would you want to rob her of the opportunity to experience real love with her destined mate?" Zander tried to reason with his wolf.

"We would be robbing her of nothing, we will love and cherish her as our queen," Zane said.

"Is that infatuation I hear in your voice?" Zander was mocking Zane.

"The girl drives me nuts, have you smelled her arousal? She is affected by us, she wants us, but because of your hardheadedness, we will lose her to another wolf" Zane said sadly.

Zander never thought it would hurt to he may cause lasting problems to her mental health that he would not dare risk it. She loved Celestine, she was the elder sister he never had and it fates had allowed it, he would have wanted her to be his mother in law.

Just the thought alone was enough to give him a wakeup call; was he falling for Angela?